EXODUS. 19-40 PART 2.
And other fruit of repentance continues to be produced, while they remain round “the Mount of God.” Thus their waiting on the consecration of Aaron (Leviticus 8;9); their clearing of themselves of the blasphemer (24); their dedication of the altar (Numbers 7); their surrender of their brethren, the Levites, to the service of the house of God “(8); their keeping of the passover (9) and, finally, their quitting of the mount in holy order, the light and approval of the Lord resting in full satisfaction upon them (10); all this evidences their state of faith and obedience. And there is no public trespass committed from the day of the golden calf till they leave Horeb. They maintain their place and allegiance all through, and finally move onward to the land of promise under the unfurled banner of the Lord God of Israel.
Thus, it is indeed that the Lord now meets them—not as obedient servants, but as pardoned sinners. As debtors to obedience under the burning mount, they did not stand for a moment; but in his own grace the Lord provides a sanctuary of salvation for them, and there they rejoice as pardoned sinners, debtors to mercy. And how truly blessed their new standing is! They come into vision of things altogether differing from the fire on the hill. The form of something that Moses himself had seen—in regions far higher than that of the lightning and thunder now fills their vision also: They now get into his secret. If he then stood in peace beyond all the reach and terror of the law, so may they now. Christ, in his fullness and grace, and not the law in its judgment, was here. Here was an altar shown to them that could attract the fire from the mount, and let it spend itself on the victim that was there, not on the people around. Here was provision in God himself for all the mischief which man had wrought, and all the penalty he had incurred. Mercy was here heard to rejoice over judgment.
This is what “the Mount of God” now tells us; and thus telling of God himself and his ways, it shows us again its title to be honored with such a name. Here God first showed himself in the burnings and thunders of this mount, to tell us of the terribleness of righteousness; but then, here he showed himself also in the shadowy tabernacle pitched at the foot of it, to tell us of his provision in Jesus, to let mercy rejoice over judgment. And. thus he is still declared here. His name is still written on this holy hill, the name of the just God, and. yet the Savior. The tables of testimony, as we find here (see also Deuteronomy 10:1-51At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. 2And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. 3And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. 4And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. 5And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me. (Deuteronomy 10:1‑5)), are now laid up in the ark, that is, magnified and made honorable in the person of the Lord of the temple, while sinners who come up to worship see only provision for their sins in the various furniture of this sanctuary. And if sinners now (as the tribes might have read their names on the priest’s breast-plate) will by faith only see themselves borne on the heart of Jesus before God, they may know at the same time, to the full repose of their consciences, that the law is there before them. As he says, “Thy law is within my heart.” So that the sinner’s blessing and salvation is thus kept in closest intimacy and company with God’s fullest praise and honor in righteousness. The sinner is borne on that heart in which God’s law has been kept and treasured up. These tales of redeeming grace, which are here told out at this mystic mount, are indeed wonderful, beloved. The glory now changes its place. It had seated itself, as we have seen, like devouring lire on the top of the hill, (Exodus 24:1717And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. (Exodus 24:17),) but now it comes down to till the tabernacle that was pitched at the foot of it. In its first place, it was death to approach it. If so much as a beast did then but touch the border of it, it was to be stoned or thrust through.
But now, it is life to come up to it. If a poor trembling sinner now do but touch the hem of it, he shall, be made whole. And we may well know the readiness with which the glory thus changes its place. It was its own delight to do so. As our hymn says: beloved,
“‘Tis his great delight to bless us—
O how he loves!”
To quit the fiery mount and seat itself in the sanctuary, to put the place of judgment behind it, and to fill the place of grace—this was its happy path, as afterward, when it came to occupy the house which Solomon built for it, it’ took its throne there with full complacency. “Arise into thy resting place,” said Solomon; “this is my rest forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it,” answered the, Lord. It was the good pleasure, the desire of the glory to fill the place. And so when it does come down actually (as we see here, and also in 2 Chronicles 5), it spreads itself, if I may so speak, it stretches itself out as though it felt itself at home. The holy and most holy places are filled, and its train so flows forth into the courts, that neither Moses now, nor the priests then, could stand to minister.
But what comfort this is to the poor sinner, that the Lord delights to take those paths which thus bring him into the midst of his people, in grace and with blessing. They are not strange or uneasy—to him. And what have we sinners to do, but to let the blessed Lord take his own way-of grace with us. It is true that we have; like Israel, by our golden calves sinned away all right to blessing. But it is as true, that the Lord has spread out—before us his golden sanctuary furnished with its altars, its laver, and its mercy-seat, to tell us of his abounding grace,’ and Christ’s victory for sinners. I learn salvation in Jesus from that same word which tells me I have destroyed myself. And there is not a thing in God’s sanctuary that does, not tell of mercy through Jesus, no trace, no voice of judgment or of death is there. And we have to shout, like Israel, at the door ‘of this sanctuary. (Leviticus 9:2424And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces. (Leviticus 9:24).) And this is faith. Love may bring services afterward to testify obedience, but faith first tells God of his goodness. The glory has taken its path from the fiery top of the hill to the mercy-seat in the sanctuary; and we have only by faith to follow it—to follow it as simply as it has moved willingly, and thus to meet our God, not in the fires of judgment, but in the dwellings of love and peace.
This we get here, in these chapters, and thus read, though in other lines, the title of this mount to be called “the Mount of God.” For here God is thus still revealing himself. Grace and glory had passed before us on this hill in the previous chapters, as we saw, —grace in the burning bush, and glory in the assembly of the strangers, and Israel. Judgment and mercy rejoicing over it have now, in their turn, passed also before us at the same place, —judgment in the fire at the top of the hill, mercy in the tabernacle at the foot of it. And thus the Lord, in these ways, and at this place, makes himself known to us, and Horeb is indeed “the Mount of God.”
Thus, I have, with desire, surveyed this holy hill. But I cannot finally leave it till I have another little meditation at the foot of it.
All that we have here seen is REVELATION of God. This bill is the place for God’s showing himself. Now our obedience to revelation is faith. If God reveal himself, faith is man’s obedient response. And on faith I would now in closing say a little.
There is a peculiar character of excellence in faith, and no wonder the scriptures speak so much of it. It glories God above everything, just because it takes God’s account of himself, and lets him do his pleasure: “He that cometh to God must believe that he is.” Adam ought to have been a believer, for God to him was a revealer. God had revealed himself in a warning, and Adam should have had faith. But Adam failed in that; and through unbelief, or making God a liar, he sinned and fell.
We now, in like manner, are called to have faith’ in God, for God has revealed himself to us also. In another way, it is true; but still God is a revealer of himself to us sinners now, and we have now to render the obedience of faith; and “without faith it is impossible to please him.” Just as with Adam. All his joy in the garden was worship. If Adam delighted in the flavor of its fruit, the scent of its flowers, or the singing of the birds there, all that enjoyment was worship. But Adam should have believed also, and his faith would have been the highest act of worship: for the heart would have rendered its service to God by faith or confidence in his word, while the eye and the ear and other senses would’ have been exercising themselves in the garden of God, as in the holy places of a temple.
Thus, Adam was called to faith, and faith would have been his best service and worship. Sin having entered does not at all change this. Faith still renders the best service, and performs the highest acts of worship. Only we sinners have other objects, proposed to faith than untainted Adam had. Necessarily so. One threat of death was revealed to him. Promise of life in union with the Son of God, and all its consequent glory and joy, is made known to us. Our circumstances give opportunity of returning to God larger service and worship, through faith, than Adam’s did. If faith gives to God his highest glory from the creature, we, by our circumstances as sinners, being called to larger exercise of faith, have competency to yield larger praise. There is more, much more, in our condition, than there was in Adam’s, to exercise faith. Sin and its necessities and sorrows have induced this. This world is the very place for the largest possible exercise of faith in the blessed God; and if we indeed desired God’s praise, we should rejoice in such opportunities of giving him the worship and honor of faith.
And such a one in this world of ours was Jesus. Without sin he was made sin. He came into this world of sinners. And how did he carry himself here? “I have put my trust in him,” says he. All through he was rendering to God the obedience and worship of faith. He trusted him, and trusted in him. He believed, and was confident. Nothing weakened or disturbed his cleaving by faith to the living God. He had laid hold on him, and nothing slacked his hand. With all against him, he trusted in God. This was glorifying God beyond all glory that God had ever received. The life of faith, which the man. Christ Jesus led in this world, was constant worship of the highest order. Angels could never have so glorified him, or rendered such worship. But that Was worship and praise indeed which was brought, by the faith of this “wondrous man,” in scenes which our alien world alone could have afforded; for “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It deals with such things as are neither enjoyed nor visible. And it is our circumstances in this world that admit of such most abundantly. Adam had present things to which he might give himself, and through the joy of which he might glorify God, and only one warning or threat revealed to his faith. Angels too have their full visible present delights. But the saint is in a world where all that is present is, more or less, astray from God, and against him; so that he must go forth from them by faith towards things hoped for and unseen. This calls faith into the most varied and constant exercise, and this makes the saint a competent worshipper of God in the highest order of worship; and Jesus valued this opportunity of worshipping him, for he loved God perfectly. He waited in such a temple continually. But we (with sorrow may we learn to say it) want a heart to value God and his praise.
But while we thus look at the principle of faith, grieving that we know it so poorly, we may also look at the object of faith, and there we shall find abundant cause for joy; for God is good, unspeakably good! God is love! His delight is in mercy; and accordingly, that which he reveals to our hearts, or that which he proposes as the great object of faith in this fallen world, is salvation. He offers that td our faith, that our hearts may at once rejoice before him. The apostle says, “We have an altar whereof they have. no right to eat who serve the tabernacle.” A strong testimony to God’s salvation, or the object of the sinner’s faith. The servants or worshippers in the tabernacle were not made perfect in the conscience. The very place bore witness that the way to God was not then made manifest; and the sacrifices, with which the worshippers dealt continually, kept their sin in remembrance (Hebrews 9. 10.); for such sacrifices could never dispose of sin. There was no such blood in them as could ever, let it be applied again and again, take it away. But now the saint has a purged conscience, because on his altar he sees blood which has obtained eternal redemption: His altar witnesses’ remission, and not remembrance of sin.
This is the mighty distance between them. This keeps the worshippers in the tabernacle, and the attendants on the New Testament altar, as the apostle tells us, asunder. The one cannot stand in company with the other. To understand the virtue of the altar is, of necessity, to quit the tabernacle. Assurance of heart in the remission of sins, or a purged conscience, is the due attribute of him who waits on the one; constant sense of sin, the due condition of him who serves or worships (λατρευοντες, Hebrews 13:1010We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. (Hebrews 13:10)) in the other. And this being so, what offering is that which the worshipper at the altar brings? Having apprehended the virtue of the blood there, what sacrifice does he in return pay? The answer comes, “By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to-God continually.” (verse 15.) Praise is the due fruit of a heart that has learned salvation, —or the value of the altar. Not prayer, but praise. A sinner has not prayer to make, but praise to render. A saint has many and many a prayer, it is true; daily weakness, and short-coming, and necessity, leads him that way. But a sinner in prayer denies the value of the altar. Praise suits salvation, and it is as God the Savior that our altar reveals God to faith.
And what has faith to do, but to let the blessed God take his own way, and spew himself in his goodness and glory? The heart that believes is silent before him while he passes by. He is pleased by this altar, which he has raised and revealed, to provide for sinners; and who are we, that we should stay his hand, or narrow the flow of his rich mercies? Let him do his pleasure—he is the Lord. If the gospel propose to let us sinners see him in the exercise of unspeakable goodness, it is the duty of the sinner just to look at him, —it is the way of faith to do nothing else. Faith thus, in filthy Joshua, allowed change of raiment without a question. He never broke silence, but just accepted the blessing and the glory. (chapter 3) Faith, in the convicted adulteress, was silent while Jesus passed by in the still small voice, writing the memorial of her shame as on a sandy floor, which the next breeze would efface forever. (John 8) Faith in the camp of Israel, as we have now seen, after they had sinned away all their blessing by the golden calf; followed the patterns which were, one after another, unfolding the pledges of God’s salvation in the golden sanctuary. (Exodus 35-40) All this was faith, which ever lets the Lord take his own way with the sinner, taking his own blessed revelation of himself without a question; and thus honoring him above everything, allowing that he has a right to bless even sinners if he please, and’ us ourselves as well as other sinners.
And this was the voice of the basket of first-fruits. (See Deuteronomy 26) Oh the nation being settled in the land, they were to fill a basket with the various fruit thereof, and offer it before God’s altar; acknowledging, at the same time, that all his promises had been made good, that he had accomplished all the goodness and mercy of which he had spoken to them, of which this mystic basket was now the witness and sample. And then they were to rejoice before the Lord their God, the nation thus simply owning all that he had done for them, and all that he had been to them, and that they, poor perishing Syrians in themselves, could indeed rejoice in him.
And this is just the pattern of a perishing sinner’s faith, be the Syrian, Greek, or Jew. We have to lay out our basket before the Lord: This is faith. Conscience may confess sins that we have done; love may bring services and obedience; but faith tells what God is and what he has done, in a rich and varied and overflowing witness. Liberty of con science, joy in God, assurance and ease of heart, hope, largeness of desire, with other exercises suited to a soul consciously brought home to God, these should be the holy fruit to fill our baskets before the Lord. Affections, such as our altar may well awaken, should fill the heart and run over; affections that become pardoned sinners, the due fruit of that land to which the Savior brings us. This is our “first love,” our basket of first-fruits. Ephesus lost it. The fruit in the basket there had withered a little. For let whatever other sacrifices may come into God’s house, this first offering should be always there in its freshness. Faith should always rejoice in what God has done, that thus the first love may be ever young and lively.
But this is far from being the way of the natural heart of man. His mind is not of this order. He clings to the law. Grace is too great and generous a thought for him. Works rather than faith is his master-principle. And this separates between his mind and God’s mind. And this principle in man shows itself, at times, in God’s choicest servants. For it is of the flesh, which is in us all. Look at David in 1 Chronicles 17 He thought to do something for the Lord. But in that he wronged God: He did not think so, or mean so, but so it was, by that he Was wronging God’s love. For shall David be before the Lord in kindness? Shall David be better than God? Will David think of building God a house, before the Lord has built him a house?
That must not be. God will be God in his love as in everything. He will be better as well as greater than we. And therefore, that very night, as though he could not rest under such a thing, the Lord tells Nathan to go and stop this purpose of David’s heart. God’s love had been wronged by it. The Lord would build him a house first, and then David or his son (in this sense the same), might build the Lord a house. And when David hears this through Nathan, the whole temper and current of his soul is changed. He at once sits before the Lord as a receiver, and does not act for the Lord as a giver. He does not talk any more of building a house for God, but rejoices in the thought of the Lord building a house for him. He leaves Martha’s place, and takes Mary’s more excellent place. (Luke 10:3838Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. (Luke 10:38).)
And this was faith again, —faith that ever allows God to take his way and show himself. What right has man to stop the way of the Lord? Shall he say to the Lord, when the Lord rises to unseal the sources of the river of life, “Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further?” If goodness will glorify itself, shall unbelief dare to dim it? Who shall close the hand of the Lord of the vineyard, if he be pleased to give the penny? If they talk of law, is it not lawful for him to do what he will with his own? God is the Lord of the well of life, and may he not turn its streams, if he please, to water the dreariest lands? He owns the springs themselves, and therefore let his rights as such owner be weighed and tried even in the balances of law, and it will be found that it is lawful for him to use them as he may, —he has a right to bless sinners if it please him.
Faith simply gives him his rights, and allows the lawfulness of God acting in grace to us. Yea, even to ourselves as well as to other sinners like us. For the less is blessed of the better; and as God justly claims for himself the place of the better, faith fully owns the claim and receives the blessing from him, even the richest blessing, the blessing of eternal salvation, life, and glory.
Thus, it is faith which chiefly glorifies God, for it sets him in the place of “the better.”. Service renders to God, faith receives from him, and thus faith honors him in the holiest place that he graciously fills for us. In a sinner walking before him in the artless liberty and confidence of faith, God is especially honored. For God is love,” and to glorify such a one we must be free and happy in him. Love can be satisfied with nothing less than that. Of course, love knows how to “comfort the feeble-minded;” and where there is “little faith,” it can well come and “support the weak,” for it tells us to do so. But still our joy in him is his will, and even his commandment. The bread of mourners was not to be eaten in the sanctuary; it would have defiled the presence of God, as the offering of an unclean heart would have defiled it. For if holiness become God’s house, so do liberty and joy. And it is faith that brings in this liberty and joy, for it apprehends the altar of which I have spoken; it apprehends God engaged for the sinner in a love that is perfect, so as to have nothing in the soul inconsistent with itself, as the bread of mourners would be. It casts out fear, and fills the temple within with its own clear, free, and refreshing element.
May our faith then, beloved, grow exceedingly. May we know the repose of heart, the silence of conscience, the triumph of hope, and the song of praise in the spirit, which it gives more and more! The revelation which our God has made of himself is so blessed, that it is only such a faith that can duly honor it. O that in connection with our subject, we were, beloved, more in harmony with the spirit of those sweet words which we sometimes have sung together: —
“Look forward to that happy place,
Beyond the bounds of time and space,
The saints’ secure abode:
On faith’s strong eagle-pinions rise,
And force your passage to the skies,
And scale the Mount of God I”
(Concluded from page 360.)
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